Labour and Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday said the government is actively working to make a national database of unemployed members of every family to give job to one member of a family as the government aims at full employment.

“We have to see through the national survey on the family members to find out the people of different abilities fit for various kinds of jobs,” he said, adding that the government will increase the skills of the overseas manpower by providing them with training in a bid to increase their salaries and facilities.

The minister told newsmen after joining a tripartite seminar on ‘Freedom of association and collective bargaining’ jointly organised by International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) at Biam auditorium in the city to observe the 60th anniversary of ILO convention.

Earlier, Mosharraf told the seminar that more productive jobs have to be created to accommodate young graduates, women and informal workers.

He said although Bangladesh Labour Act-2006 provides the principles of freedom of association, there are still some shortcomings and weaknesses in the law and the government will review the faults in future.

“To make our workplace free of child labour, working conditions have to be further improved and a strong monitoring mechanism be enforced. Furthermore, the government has to follow a poverty reduction strategy as a priority policy to combat child labour,” he added.

Mosharraf said the government is committed to ensuring the rights of the workers and their welfare, including the freedom of association and collective bargaining at the workplace.

The minister, however, said although the labour act guarantees the rights of workers, including trade unionism, there are obstacles to the formation of unions due to the management’s laid-back attitude.

BILS Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan said the un-elected government had made some laws against the interests of labourers and the laws should not be endorsed in the parliament.